[ExI] Searle and AI

[Ben Zaiboc]

I was led to think that Searle believes that conscious AI is impossible (due to certain people saying things like "Strong AI of the sort that Searle refutes"), but in "Why I Am Not a Property Dualist", he says:

"Maybe someday we will be able to create conscious artifacts, in which case subjective states of consciousness will be ‘physical’ features of those artifacts"

and

"Consciousness is thus an ordinary feature of certain biological systems, in the same way that photosynthesis, digestion, and lactation are ordinary features of biological systems"

Thinking that we will maybe be able to create conscious artifacts someday is what I call affirmation of the idea, not refutation.

He even hints at how this might be possible, by comparing it to photosynthesis, which we are now very close to being able to reproduce in non-biological systems.


Ben Zaiboc